Something Haute Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.Â
With the concept of double identities and dual roles an ever-returning trend in Bollywood, almost every flick this year tried it. However, while most failed, there’s one film that stood out due to its unique look into dual identities – or rather identity theft – and that’s A Gentleman.
Starring Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez in lead roles, the film directed by DK and Raj of Happy Ending fame, explores the concept of whether lives can change if kismet, brains and brawn help.
Tracing the story of two Sidharths – one who is a traditionally good guy with a high-paid job, a grand house in, the other one is what our heroine (Jacqueline) digs for – adventurous, risky and street-smart. However, this isn’t no twins or identical role, as you’ll find out soon in the two-and-a-half-hour explosion of action, as the story meanders through twists and turns and of course, the ‘real’ identity of Sidharth’s ‘Gaurav’ and ‘Rishi’.
Although the film starts on a rather understated, but flashy note – foreign locations, characters flaunting designer clothes and fake accents and predictable sequences – the story soon takes over and turns it into an ‘edge-of-your-seat’ thriller which you really wouldn’t want to blink and miss.
The film features the pair in sunny Miami and in an even hotter chemistry.
Filled with the quintessential Raj and DK touch, which was too blatant in the Saif Ali Khan starrer Happy Ending, A Gentleman uses anecdotes in a much subtler yet quirky manner. From smart dialogues and funny scenes to on-point one-liners, the film does finally use perfect quantity needed for a good action film.
That said, A Gentleman is not flawless; it has its fair share of cliches and typecasts but they all actually work in the favour of the film. Although one wouldn’t mind some explanation to how Sidharth suddenly turns into a mastermind at every impending trouble! It makes him look a little too much like 80s MacGyver!
All in all, the film may not be the perfect narrative out there, but it isn’t really a bad one either. In a year of busts for Bollywood, A Gentleman stands its ground and doesn’t slump into mediocrity like many films that came and went this year without anyone noticing them.
So, if a quirky action packed film with great hero-heroine chemistry is what you’re looking for, A Gentleman may be all that you need!
